Colorado Springs After Dark
by writer writing
Summary: When Michaela discovers the town is infested by vampires and that the townspeople are dropping off one by one, she calls in Sister Ruth to act as a vampire slayer. A fun Halloween fic inspired by a 19th century vampire kit.
1. Chapter 1

Michaela hadn't been in bed for two seconds when there was a fierce pounding on the door downstairs.

"Must be an emergency," she said to Sully.

Katie broke into a cry, not happy about being woken up in the middle of the night.

"I'll stay with her. You go."

She threw on her clothes as fast as she could and found Jake at the door. "Mrs. Mallory's husband is bad off. They're waiting at the clinic. You should've heard her caterwauling. Woke up the whole town."

"I'm coming." With Andrew out of town, she was the Mallorys' only hope. She rode into town with Jake, going as fast as the horses could go.

Mrs. Mallory was standing outside the clinic obviously waiting on her. Her cheeks were shining from all the tears she'd shed. "You got to help him, Dr. Mike!" she cried when she saw her. "There was a noise in the barn and the animals were making all kinds of sounds. Silas told me to wait while he checked it out. When he didn't come back, I went in and found him just laying there. Blood running down from his neck. Some kind of creature got him."

"I'll do everything I can," she promised.

Silas was laid out on the examining table, eyes closed. There was no rise and fall of his chest. Unbuttoning his shirt slightly and putting the bell of her stethoscope to his chest, she listened for a heartbeat, but there was no pulse.

To her sorrow, there was nothing she could do. He was dead. She would have to tell his wife, which was the hardest thing about being a doctor.

She drew back up to examine him further for a cause of death, knowing Mrs. Mallory would likely want answers. She couldn't help but notice how pale he was, so pale he was almost white. To be expected when one was dead, of course, but he looked as if he had suffered from albinism. She'd only seen Silas in town a few times, but as far as she could recall, he had been quite tan as most farmers were.

Her eyes then went to his neck. Two round little holes as if something had bit him there, but it couldn't have been a snake bite, or at least not a poisonous one, because there was no swelling. Had the shock of whatever had bitten him been enough to kill him?

She turned, preparing to tell Mrs. Mallory the awful news, when she heard the soft rustling of clothing. She whirled back around and her eyes went wide to see Silas sitting up. His eyes were glowing red. Maybe he was an albino and she had just never noticed before, but his hair wasn't white. It was dark, in fact. Very strange. He was moving to stand.

"Mr. Mallory, don't get up. You've been through quite the ordeal, and I'm going to have to look you over to make sure you're really alright."

He didn't appear to hear her as he got to his feet. He began walking towards her in a most unsettling way, but even more unsettling was the way he was looking at her like he hungered for her.

She took more than one step back, wondering if she should call for help, but then his wife came into the clinic.

Mrs. Mallory ran into his arms. "Oh, Silas. You're okay! What happened? What was in the barn?"

"Nothing. Only a bat who'd lost its way."

Michaela frowned. If he was speaking of a vampire bat, it had indeed lost its way because from what she'd read, they were only found in Mexico and South America. But Silas seemed to be okay now whatever it had been. "I guess you're free to go if you're feeling better."

"I feel fine," he said.

"We'll pay you the next time we're in town," Mrs. Mallory said. "Thank you so much."

She watched as they got into their wagon. Silas was hanging close to his wife, looking down at her with the same hungry expression she'd seen trained on her only moments ago. She shivered. If it meant interacting with Mr. Mallory again, she'd just as soon not get paid. She hadn't really done much anyway.

She took her stethoscope off and put it back in her bag, thinking about what had just happened. Halloween was drawing near. She was reminded of another Halloween when everyone had been convinced there was a man dropping dead all over town, but this was different. She had carefully examined this man. She had been ready to write him a certificate of death. She would have staked her reputation as a doctor on the fact that he was dead.

Only he wasn't. She had doubted stories of people being buried alive, but now it seemed a lot more possible. Was she overtired and had just missed hearing a heartbeat? That seemed the most likely explanation. Perhaps Mr. Mallory hadn't been eyeing her strangely at all. Maybe she just needed to go back to bed.

She was just preparing to leave for home when Preston came running up. "Come quick! Something's wrong with the reverend!"

It wasn't like Preston to be this excited over anyone's welfare but his own and that made her run all the harder. She only stopped once when a black cloud moved out of the way to reveal a blood red moon.

She forced herself to calm down and take deep breaths. It was the unusualness of her last patient making her feel like there was something supernatural about a red moon. It was only a lunar eclipse, beautiful and rare but just an eclipse.

She resumed running towards the church, having no idea that in only a few minutes she would wonder why she had ever doubted the supernatural.


	2. Chapter 2

"Reverend?" Michaela called.

The church seemed strangely empty and dark.

She turned to Preston. "Where is he?

"I don't know. He was here a moment ago, laying on the floor bleeding. He woke up looking crazed, and I told him I'd go get help."

"What do you mean crazed?" That sounded too much like what had happened to Silas.

"Exactly what I said. He had a crazy look in his eyes. He looked...murderous. And even more peculiar, he looked like he could see me."

She couldn't even imagine Reverend Johnson with a murderous look, but Preston looked to be perfectly serious. The possibility of his sight being restored was downright ludicrous. "Did he have 2 holes in his neck?"

"I'm not sure, but now that I think about it, he was bleeding from the neck. He was on the floor when I heard the commotion."

"Commotion?"

"I stayed late at the bank and was heading to the resort when I heard what sounded like a struggle of some sort, but his attacker wasn't anywhere to be seen when I got there. I obviously scared him off."

The idea that Preston would scare anyone off was unlikely as he didn't have any weapons, but then the attacker had to have been a coward to attack a blind reverend.

They walked down the aisle slowly and cautiously. Something didn't feel right. Like maybe the attacker was still in the room. They looked down every pew as they passed but saw nothing unusual.

Up on chancel, the pulpit had been knocked over. Michaela righted it, hoping to see a clue to Reverend Johnson's whereabouts.

They both heard it, the fluttering of leathery wings then stillness again. They whipped around to see the man they were searching for, standing behind them. He was almost glaring so intense was his gaze.

"Reverend, are you alright?" Michaela asked. She didn't like the look of his color at all. He had to have lost a lot of blood to be so pale.

He hissed at her in response to her question, which put her at a loss for words. She couldn't have heard right, but how could one mistake a hiss?

Suddenly the reverend opened his mouth to reveal 2 sharp, pointy teeth. Only one word went through her mind, vampire.

It must have been the same word that went through Preston's mind because they simultaneously ran to the door that lead upstairs to the belfry, slamming the door behind them. Michaela found a broom that she then jammed against the door in place of a lock.

She wondered if this choice had been wise, considering they were trapped like fish in a barrel. He'd been blocking the other door that lead to the outside, but a window probably would have been better because then they could have kept running.

When she'd lived in Boston, she'd met some country folks who'd moved to the city, who had genuinely believed in vampires. The family she'd treated through her father's practice had even insisted on her removing their dead grandmother's heart, maintaining she could cause sickness and death in the family if the heart wasn't burned. She'd thought them simple-minded at the time though she'd complied with the request, but now it seemed liked the most sensible thing in the world, and she regretted not doing it with all her deceased patients.

She and Preston reached the top of the belfry where they had nowhere else to go, unless they could shimmy down the roof, which would likely result in them breaking their necks if a vampire didn't get to it first.

A black bat came flying towards them, which was no accident. She knew enough folklore to know that vampires were supposed to be able to take the form of a bat.

She rang the bell, hoping she could stun it or knock it unconscious, trying not to think how it was really Reverend Johnson she would be knocking with the bell.

She didn't even make contact, but it spiraled to the ground as if it had been hit. On the ground, he materialized into his vampire form and clasping his hands over his ears, he took off into a run away from the town as if he were in physical pain.

"Don't stop ringing!" Preston yelled though he was right next to her.

"I wasn't planning on it," she said, ringing the bell as if their very life depended on it, which it did.

The bell ringing also had the unfortunate consequence of drawing out all of the townspeople.

"Go back. Go back. The town's under attack!" Preston yelled. "Lock your doors and windows! Don't come out until morning!"

Fortunately, they listened without knowing why. They surely couldn't have slept with all the bell ringing going on.

She and Preston took turns ringing until their arms gave out and then they'd get a short break while the other person took over. By the end of the night, she felt like her arms were going to fall off.

When the first golden ray lit the sky, Michaela felt the tension melt away, never so happy to witness a sunrise in her life. When the sun became a fiery ball in the sky, she finally stopped ringing.

"Well, this is just great," Preston complained. "Isn't the reverend the one that's supposed to save everybody, using holy water or some such?"

"That's Catholics who have holy water, and maybe Anglicans, but I don't think they use it to ward off evil like the Catholics do."

"Then we need to find a Catholic because that was evil if I ever saw it. I will personally put the man or priest up in my resort and pay him a reward besides."

"Or woman?"

He rubbed his neck as if he could already feel teeth sinking into it. "If there's someone who can save our necks, I don't care what their gender is."

"Sister Ruth and Kid Cole are staying in Denver, according to a letter I received from them. We could have Horace send a telegram, and they'd be here on the train before nightfall."

Preston looked at the sun that had never seemed to rise so fast before. "That's a must. I don't ever want to go through a night like that again."

"Agreed. I'm certain she'd know what to do if anyone would."

It was a small comfort to have a plan, but she wondered if Sister Ruth would really know what to do.


	3. Chapter 3

The townspeople emerged in the early morning fog as the ringing had stopped. Michaela couldn't help thinking how perfectly appropriate the fog was to the circumstances, much like the blood red moon had been.

"The reverend didn't come home last night," Loren said, the worry written all over his face and tone. He had felt it his duty to look after the minister ever since the reverend had begun rooming with him upon losing his sight. He was also the first to meet them as she and Preston crossed the bridge back into town, though there were many more behind him.

"I know," Michaela said quietly.

"Is he-is he-" Loren asked, not able to even speak the words.

She wasn't sure how to answer it. He wasn't dead exactly, but he was no longer the reverend they knew and loved. And she didn't know if there was any hope of him coming to himself again.

Preston was swift in replying, however. "Unfortunately, bloodsuckers got to him, and he's one now himself. We must band together, or we'll all be joining him."

"Bloodsuckers?" Dorothy asked, her journalistic instincts kicking in. "What are you talking about? Mosquitoes?"

"Vampires. Real, live vampires," Preston said.

They all seemed to look to Michaela to deny or confirm this outlandish tale. "I don't know what all is fact or fiction concerning the legend we know, but from what I can tell, the person affected gets bit in the neck, and he becomes demented or possessed and seeks a new victim. I, and Preston, saw the reverend's teeth come to a point and watched him transform from a bat into a person."

"The reverend got possessed? I didn't think preachers could get possessed," Jake said.

"Why not? They're flesh and blood just like us," Hank said, arms wide open as if he were preaching, which looked odd on a saloon keeper.

Loren and Jake disappeared into their stores and returned with their rifles.

Hank already had his colt around him. He drew it out now and added, "And flesh and blood can be shot."

They seemed to think guns were the answer as more of the men disappeared for their guns, but what good could their metal balls do against these creatures of power? And how could they kill the reverend, changed though he might be?

"You would shot Reverend Johnson?" she asked them all in disbelief.

Jake and Loren immediately looked sheepish, but Hank said, "Wouldn't want to but if it comes down to him or me."

"He's right," Preston said. "It might come down to choosing him or us."

"I have a plan," she said over the now even more nervous clamoring of the crowd, "that doesn't involve guns. Sister Ruth is only in Denver. She can be here before it gets dark. They really must shun the light or he and Silas Mallory would have returned by now, so we have the time to wait."

"Silas Mallory's one of them?" Jake said, swallowing hard as he realized how close he'd come to being one himself.

"He is and someone must have bit him. We're dealing with at least 3." She looked at Horace, who though dressed had forgotten to remove his nightcap. He'd been silent and unmoving through it all, the only change was his eyes getting ever bigger. "Horace, we need to send a telegram to Denver as soon as possible."

"Right," he answered, and she followed him into the telegraph office.

"I'm so nervous," Horace said, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants. "I don't know if I can hold my hands steady enough to send a telegram."

"You must. All our lives depend on it."

He seemed to rally his courage, or at least a little of it, as he asked, "What do I tell her?"

"The truth. You really only need to send 3 words, I think. Need Help. Vampires."

She hoped she got here soon before the men did something foolish like shooting at anything that moved.

She was happy to see the fog dispelling when she went back out and even happier to see Sully coming up the road with Katie in his arms. She ran to meet them.

"Must've been a bad case for you to be gone all night," Sully said.

She threw her arms around him, kissing him, and then kissing Katie's forehead. She was relieved beyond belief to see them safe and whole. She was thankful Colleen was away at college but concerned about the boys. "How are Brian and Matthew?"

He might have thought it a strange question, but he answered it just the same. "Fine. Brian's getting ready for school, and Matthew got called out to look at some property damage in the middle of breakfast."

She was forced to take a deep breath. She reminded herself they would both be perfectly alright in the daylight though she wished they were here with her.

"What's this all about?" he asked as she took Katie from him. If he hadn't guessed something was wrong from knowing her so well, he would have by all the people still in the streets engaged in uneasy discourse. She held her close, the smell of sunshine in Katie's white, linen clothes smelling sweeter than usual.

So she told him everything she had told the town. She expected him to tell her she must have dreamed it. She halfway expected she had herself, and she'd been there.

But he took her seriously and said, "I think I should talk to Cloud Dancing. He knows more about legends and myths than anyone I know. Maybe he'll have some way for us to protect ourselves and help the reverend and the others too."

He didn't waste any time getting to the reservation and even less in asking his question. "What do you know about vampires?"

"Vampires?" Cloud Dancing asked, the word foreign.

"Monsters of the night. People who are bitten on the neck, causing them to transform into these beings, who can't die or live. They become consumed by one desire, the need to drink fresh blood, making their numbers grow."

"That's a white man's story. We say that there are those raised from the dead, who must walk the earth, preying on the living, but that is as close to it as we come."

"Turns out it's more than a story. You need to safeguard the reservation. We don't know how to fight them yet. And any of the ways I can think of, you all wouldn't have here. Just make sure no one goes off alone at night and make sure all the braves are armed with whatever you can find. I seem to remember something about the heart. Make sure that's where the aim men aim their weapons if you meet up with one."

"I'm concerned for you and your family. Will you be alright?"

He nodded. "We think Sister Ruth might have some ideas on fighting them, the lady we had Thanksgiving with a couple years ago. If she doesn't get rid of them all tonight, I'll let you know what she says to do."

sss

Michaela slept fitfully at the clinic, catching up on her missed sleep and preparing to stay up again tonight. She made beds up for the children. The vampires wanted a simple feeding, so they went after the ones who were alone and vulnerable if the pattern so far could be trusted. They'd be unlikely to come right into the middle of town, making it safer than the homestead.

Evening was upon them before she knew it, but they still had a good hour or two of daylight as most of Colorado Springs waited for the train to pull in. Sister Ruth had sent back a telegram that she and Kid would be on it.

The train whistle sent a sigh of collective relief running through the gathered members of the town.

"Well, thank goodness," Grace said, her friend echoing Michaela's own thoughts. "You wouldn't believe how many pies I've burned at the café for worrying about this."

A few passengers disembarked, customers of Preston, seeking the healing effect of the springs. Someone should have warned them to stay onboard, but it wouldn't be Preston as he rushed forward to show them the way to the health resort. Michaela would have said something, but Sister Ruth and Kid Cole got off next, bringing help and hope.

Sister Ruth didn't look even a little worried as she held up a black box. "This little kit has all the tools we need to fight the powers of darkness."

Michaela allowed her shoulders to slump in relaxation for the first time in 24 hours. They were saved. She should have known then that salvation never came easy.


	4. Chapter 4

Michaela led the Coles to the clinic. Hank, Jake, and Loren followed still wielding their guns as they had been doing all day. Matthew was with them as well. He had eased up on the gun laws for this short period of time and nearly every citizen was walking around with one, women too. Sully had stayed behind, guarding the children, though it was early yet, and he unbarred the door, letting them all in.

Sister Ruth set the dark wooden box down and opened it so they could all see the contents. "Got it from a pawn shop in Denver. Some rich lady bought it back from a European tour then fell on hard times and sold it. The message you sent was all over town, thanks to the telegrapher, and the owner of the pawn shop gave it to me for free."

"Probably bought back a vampire with her too," muttered Loren. "We ain't never had no vampires in Colorado Springs before."

"You ever fought a vampire?" Jake asked. He was respectful but doubtful she could really do any good, box or no box.

"I've seen a vampire one other time. A 13-year-old girl was affected, bound in the chains of Satan. I wanted to heal her, to allow Christ to drive the demonic forces away, but her father sadly drove a stake through her heart instead while she was sleeping. It worked, but it killed her too. And I knew there had to be a better way."

"You've got some, I see, stakes and a mallet," Jake said, looking over her shoulder.

"I ain't planning on using them," she said firmly. "Why use violent means when there are peaceable ways?"

Michaela saw the verse transcribed in the corner of the lid. "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." Luke 19:27. She'd have to read the passage to be sure, but she had a feeling the verse had been taken out of context. "I'm glad to hear that, Sister Ruth. I knew you were the right one to come help us."

"So what are you going to do?" Hank wanted to know. "Throw a Bible at them?" He picked up the beaded, cross necklace. "Choke one to death with this?"

"No," Sister Ruth answered, looking at him with a frown.

Hank remained unaffected as he continued to pick up and sort through items in the box, one being a small pistol. "So there is a gun in here. Maybe you got some sense after all."

"It can't be just any old gun. The bullets have to be silver," Kid said. "All your guns are a waste. Ya'll might as well put them away. You'd have better luck throwing pebbles at them."

"And as I said before, I ain't using violent methods," Sister Ruth clarified. "It came with the kit. I don't aim to send a single soul winging their way to heaven before their time."

"What's in the phials?" Matthew asked. He didn't regret his decisions on the guns, useless at killing vampires though they might be. There might have been a riot had he not allowed it. He perhaps felt the situation more than any of them, being that he was the sheriff and had failed to keep the town safe though there was nothing he could have done that he hadn't done. He wanted to know how to combat them.

"Garlic paste, holy water, and holy earth," she answered.

"Holy earth?" Jake repeated.

"Ground made holy by the presence of God. The soil found around the church is made sacred because it's where people come to worship Him."

"Didn't keep the vampire from biting the reverend," Hank pointed out with a smirk. "In a church."

"But did his foot touch the consecrated ground?" Loren asked. "He could have flown in from the sound of things."

"And the water's from the Jordan River, the very water where our Savior was baptized," Sister Ruth said.

Preston would be pleased about the holy water, Michaela thought wryly.

"Can I have the garlic?" Matthew asked. A sheriff shouldn't be defenseless.

"Of course, you can," Ruth said. "It keeps them away without destroying them. I don't know why garlic carries such power, but it does. They just don't like it, I guess."

"How you going to choose which one to use?" Sully asked.

Sister Ruth picked up the books of prayers, a small book that was also a part of the kit. "I've already decided even before I got this thing. I'm armed with the sword of the spirit and prayer, the greatest arsenal any Christian can have, and they're all I need."

It had grown dark while they looked over the contents of the kit. And the clinic became as silent as a grave. The streets were unnaturally quiet too, everyone having tucked themselves inside their houses to defend their hearth and kin with useless guns. Even the saloon and hotel, normally at its most active when the sun set, had more in common tonight with a mausoleum than a place of business.

They took turns looking out the window, watching and waiting. Kid and Sister Ruth went outside to take a walk around the town. Michaela didn't miss Kid taking the silver bullets when his wife wasn't looking.

It was Hank that spotted one first. "That vampire's a lady!" He sounded more surprised than he had been to find out a lady could be a doctor.

It wasn't a surprise to Michaela at all. In fact, she'd expected it, being that the vampire was Silas' wife.

Hank made a move for the door. "What are you doing?" Jake asked.

"I know how to handle women be they alive or the undead. I'll take care of this problem real quick."

"Let Sister Ruth and Kid Cole handle her. They'll see her soon enough. If you go out there, you're going to get bit," Matthew said.

"You think some preacher woman can do better? I'll talk her down and if that don't work, I'll overpower her. Walk her right into the town jail. I'll do the job you were elected for but are too cowardly to do."

"Hank," Sully tried to warn, but he was out the door before he could say anything else.

"This ain't good," Jake said.

"He's a goner," Loren agreed.

"I should go after him," Matthew said, unpopping the cork off his garlic paste.

"No, we're not sure the garlic works," Michaela pleaded. "Wait. If Hank does get bit, Sister Ruth will be able to help him, I'm sure."

They all crowded around the window now. They watched Hank's confident swaggering and then they watched Hank get bit. He was standing there and letting it happen like he was under some kind of spell. Silas' wife disappeared into the night while Hank lay crumpled in the dust.

"Maybe we ought to go sprinkle some of that holy water on him while he's still unconscious," Jake said.

"Yeah, but who knows when he decides to wake up, and are we sure it's going to work?" Loren asked. "Dr. Mike's right. Leave it to Sister Ruth. She knows what she's doing. After all, I can still hear out of both my ears, can't I?"

No one could deny that logic. She had healed him thoroughly, so they waited for Sister Ruth and Kid Cole to come upon Hank. Which they did just as he was starting to revive.

Michaela yelled through the glass. "Be careful! He's a vampire now!"

Sister Ruth immediately found a prayer in the book. She must have been familiar with them to be able to read in the low lighting, but then October moons were brighter and larger than usual. "O God, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech Thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that Thou wouldest be pleased to make Thy ways known unto them, Amen."

"Amen," the group inside echoed, having heard the prayer clearly as she had spoken it in the same volume she used in revivals.

Hank was up on his feet by now, and he was eyeing Sister Ruth and Kid Cole hungrily. Kid loaded the silver bullets in his gun while Ruth found a psalm somewhat appropriate to the occasion.

"You have not shut me up in the power of the enemy; You have set my feet in an open place. Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat and my belly."

Hank was shrinking from them as if the words were flaming arrows and causing him pain beyond words.

"Is it working because Hank's a vampire or because Hank's Hank? He never has been much for listening to scripture," Jake said.

Hank transformed into a bat just like the reverend had and just like they'd seen Silas' wife do. Most likely to go hide wherever it was the vampires had found to hide during daylight hours.

Sister Ruth was taking no chances and finished out the passage. "I have trusted in You, O Lord. I have said, 'You are my God. My times are in Your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant, and in Your loving-kindness save me. Lord, let me not be ashamed for having called upon You; rather, let the wicked be put to shame; let them be silent in the grave.'"

Michaela was glad to see vampires could be driven back by the Holy Word, but Hank meant there was another member of the town that was down, and there was no way to turn them back it appeared, only to keep them away. Would it end in them having to drive stakes through their neighbors' hearts like that 13-year-old girl had to have done to her? She prayed a prayer of her own in that moment.

Katie cried from the crib that had been set up in the corner. Michaela reached her first. Her daughter usually slept through the night now. Was it sleeping in new surroundings, or could she sense that the very air seemed to be saturated with evil even at her tender age?


	5. Chapter 5

When the sun rose, they all went to bed, following the same sleep schedule as the vampires.

Sister Ruth and Kid Cole stayed in the Gold Nugget Saloon as they had done in the past. It felt strange this time with Hank not being there. In a way, the saloon and hotel seemed to be an extension of Hank.

When they woke, the Coles found Preston waiting for them downstairs.

"I need your help," he said to Sister Ruth.

"That's what I'm here for, brother."

"How do you kill them? They're interfering with my business, and I will not let the Springs Chateau and Health Resort, go under, vampires or no vampires. I hear you managed to keep them away last night."

"We did, but we don't want to kill them just repel them." She opened the kit up, intending to show him the book of prayers she'd read from, but Preston took the crucifix instead.

He held the simple crucifix in his hand. "You mean all I have to do is hold up a cross and the vampire's going to run?"

"Even a vampire knows who his Maker is and has a healthy respect for God's power, shown in his shunning of all things holy."

"You know as well as I do that the town can't operate by merely keeping them at bay. The resort houses out-of-towners, and out-of towners aren't going to come if word leaks out. One of my guests was bitten last night, and I've managed to keep it quiet so far since she was traveling alone, but you're going to have to consider using that gun and mallet. It's them or us."

Kid noticed right away he didn't volunteer for the job though the weapons were right there.

Preston must have seen his scorn and Ruth's deep sadness over the thought of killing even a monster. "It's not that I'm coldhearted, you understand, merely practical. I'll use the cross for now, but we need a long term solution. Maybe you both ought to be there tonight. Even though only one person was bitten as far as I could tell, I got the impression they were swarming just outside the resort, waiting to strike."

"You'd sing another tune if you were the one bitten," Kid said.

"Do either of you know how to turn them back?"

"Not exactly," Sister Ruth said, "but I have hope. There's always hope."

"And as I said, I'm only practical."

"We'll be there at the resort," Sister Ruth told him.

"I assumed you would," Preston said before going on his way.

"Real grateful, ain't he?" Kid asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"He wouldn't feel beholden to God Himself. We better find Michaela and Sully and let them know our plans."

sss

"I'd like to go with you, but I couldn't leave the children or the town," Michaela said.

"Why don't you go with them?" Matthew said. "I can keep the town safe. I've spent all my waking hours making more garlic paste. And Sully can watch Brian and Katie. If you figure out a plan to change them into their former selves, they might need doctoring afterwards."

Matthew made a good point. At the very least, they'd be disoriented and probably weakened too. "You're right."

"Where is Sully?" Kid asked, looking around the room.

"Sully bought the last bulb of garlic in the store to take out to the Indian reservation. He'll be back long before dark. I guess we'd better go if we're going to get to the resort in time. Though with the kit, I'm not too worried about getting caught unaware."

"Handy little box," Sister Ruth agreed, patting the silky wood.

"Look at that," Kid said as they came out of the clinic. He pointed to the small pockets of missing dirt all around the church made in people's attempts to arm themselves with holy earth.

"I hope it works," Michaela said unsurely.

"I'm sure they wouldn't have included it in the kit if it didn't," Ruth responded.

"Do you want to go in and pray?" Kid asked his wife, knowing the comfort and strength she found praying inside a church.

"Better not," she said. "Not enough time."

Preston must have been watching for them because he greeted them at the door. He whisked the three of them away to a back room for employees. "Don't let the guests know why you're here. I've told them to stay in their rooms because there's a panther loose and that the locals are hunting it. That's what you should tell them if they ask: you're hunting a panther."

Wasted words by the look of it as he received 3 frowns, none of them were willing to lie especially about something like this.

By this time, the sun was in the process of setting though it hadn't set yet.

"You ever thought of marketing your services?" Preston asked Sister Ruth. "They're unusual services, faith healing and vampire slaying. Worth a fortune. You have the potential with the right man backing you to make more money than you ever dreamed possible."

"You're that man, I suppose?" Kid interrupted.

"Naturally. I don't know why there's this assumption that ministers must be poor as...well, church mice. It doesn't have to be true."

"I ain't in this to make money," Sister Ruth said.

"Of course, you're not," Preston soothed. "But you could have more funds for your ministry."

"Is now the time to be talking business deals?" Kid asked, having lost patience with the financially-driven man some time back.

"When this is all through then. You'd be helping people like you want and making money. I already intend to reimburse you for your time spent here."

Michaela wondered sometimes if she looked deep into Preston's eyes, right into the center of his pupils, if there wouldn't be little dollar signs contained within its black depths.

When night had well and truly fallen, Ruth and Kid decided to walk the premises, hoping to lure one in, but it was Preston and Michaela who spotted one first.

It was the reverend again back to finish what he had started. Michaela wondered if she should have brought a bell. It had done the job last time even if it had been tiring. Her arms still ached from all the ringing.

"I'll make fast work of him," Preston said, and he was out the back door before she could protest. Just because he'd been given the cross didn't mean they shouldn't have let Sister Ruth handle it. She had a better grasp on the situation.

Preston whipped out the cross in front of him, holding it more like a dagger than a revered symbol. The golden figure of Jesus shimmered in the moonlight and Michaela could barely stand to watch and yet she couldn't bare not to watch.

Although Reverend Johnson initially froze, a smile replaced his passing fear, and he began to advance again too quickly to outrun. A silent cry was trapped in Michaela's throat. It was Hank all over.

Preston realized too late his grave miscalculation and though he continued to try to shove the wooden cross at his attacker, even making an attempt to drive it in like it was a stake, the reverend had him by the neck.

Michaela heard rather than saw when the Coles returned. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the crumpled heap that was Preston. The reverend was long gone, and the vampire Preston would rise up any moment.

"Why didn't it work?" Michaela asked, finding her voice at the last. Even now it was pretty thin and shaky. She wondered if last night had been a fluke with Hank's sudden retreat. Maybe they were defenseless and doomed against this attack. Preston still clutched the crucifix in his hand rather pitifully.

"You have to believe," Sister Ruth said sadly and then she quoted a verse. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.' The power ain't in the cross. It's in God. He is our defense against the troubles in this world and against the other realm."

That made sense. Michaela was more than sure that Preston was a social church goer only. His actions testified to that. 6 vampires and counting, and there was always the possibility there were more they didn't know about. "There has to be a way to change them," she said, eyeing the kit, hoping that something with that power was still hidden in there.

"I have heard it might be possible if they drink the holy water," Sister Ruth said slowly, pulling the phial out, "but that's where the problem lays. How are we going to get them still and make them drink? They're more likely to drink us."

"We'll find a way," Kid said. "If that's what it takes, that's what we'll do."

He spoke bravely, Michaela thought, but it was no wonder Sister Ruth hadn't previously mentioned it. It would be nigh unto impossible to capture them much less make them drink, but like Kid said they had to find a way.


	6. Chapter 6

"Where's Sister Ruth?" Michaela asked as Kid came into the clinic the next evening.

"I'm not sure. She was gone when I woke up. Knowing her though, I'd bet she's off somewhere praying."

"No doubt you're right, and we certainly need all the prayer we can get. That phial doesn't have enough water even if we should manage to capture them all." The thought of picking and choosing between people to live normal lives or to live forever cursed was unthinkable.

Sully with that sometimes uncanny ability to read her mind brought a comforting arm around her.

"We talked about that some more before we went to bed," Kid said. "She came up with an idea, but she didn't get a chance to tell me what that idea was before I fell asleep."

Sister Ruth came into the clinic with a bucketful of water at that moment, the perfect timing almost unreal.

"Is that more holy water?" Michaela asked hopefully, eyeing it for some kind of unknown quality that would confirm it was.

"Not exactly. Just water. But if we ask God to bless the water, what's to keep it from becoming holy? Aren't we a nation of priests?"

That term, nation of priests, sounded familiar. It was probably written somewhere in the Bible. "I suppose we are."

"Then let's let God rain down a shower of blessings," Sister Ruth said, setting it down on the operating table and rolling her sleeves up like she was preparing for surgery. She pulled out yet another psalm and began to read.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

Renewing youth? Would the water so blessed renew the vampires' bodies. Fervently, she added her silent prayers to the ancient yet relevant words.

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children;To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all."

She looked around the room at Sister Ruth, Kid Cole, Sully, and Brian, the former half listening and half playing with Katie in the floor. She believed they were all adding their own prayers to the blessing Sister Ruth was placing on the water. The air felt charged with the presence of God.

"Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul."

"Amen," echoed around the room.

Sister Ruth added the phial to the bucket, figuring the water would at least disperse through it if they hadn't been successful in making the water holy.

Sully found a covering for the bucket and tied it on with rope, lest any of the precious water spill out.

"I never thought I'd say this," Kid said, unconsciously fingering the silver bullet he'd swiped and thinking how he could be forced to use it if their experiment failed, "but let's go see if we can go catch some vampires."

"It'd be best if we could catch them sleeping," Sister Ruth said. "The question is where do they sleep?"

"You know the land better than anybody, Sully," Michaela said. "I'll stay with the children this time."

"Be careful," they told each other at the same time, bringing a smile to both their lips before they gave each other a kiss.

After a goodbye to the children, the 3 vampire hunters left the clinic.

"The graveyard seems like the most likely place to look," Kid said as they came upon it. "Aren't they supposed to sleep in coffins? I don't see how though given they never died to get any."

"My guess is they'd hole up in a cave or a mineshaft like bats being that it's dark," Sully said.

"Sounds reasonable," Sister Ruth agreed. "Lead the way."

They couldn't make as fast a time on foot as they would've liked due to the bucket, but they went as fast as they were able.

sss

Brian was concerned about missing the town's annual Halloween party. It was one of his favorite holidays because of all the candy and sweets. And who didn't love dressing up? He was old enough not to pester but young enough to be extremely disappointed that there probably wasn't going to be one this year.

The entire town had smeared garlic paste around the door and window frames in the same manner the Hebrews had marked their doors with lamb's blood except more excessively. It had worked the night before. The only place the vampires had visited was Preston's resort.

School had been canceled indefinitely until the vampire problem was a thing of the past, and he was staying up later than usual reading a story to Katie. She had fallen asleep, but he kept reading the pretty, little fairy stories anyway because they took his mind off reality.

Jack had just traded his cow for beans when the sound of glass shattering brought the world around him rushing back.

He let out a small gasp of horror to see someone had turned Dorothy into one. He suddenly wished she had turned out to be a witch like he'd thought she had been not too many Halloweens ago. A witch would be so much easier to deal with in some ways than a vampire.

His next thought was of Katie, and he rose to his feet to block the crib with his body. He'd never heard of a vampire baby, but he wasn't taking any chances. Dorothy was not going to get his baby sister even if it meant becoming a vampire himself.

sss

Michaela had heard the commotion and ran to it, bursting into the room just a moment too late. She saw Dorothy changing into her bat form to get out of the broken window faster. She'd never felt so betrayed even though she knew her friend wasn't herself, but she couldn't concentrate on that.

"Brian!" she yelled. Perhaps he would wake. Perhaps the feeding hadn't been long enough to do harm. She crouched down by his side even though she knew in her heart it was too late.

This was her worst nightmare come to life. She had the urge to pinch herself to see if she was awake. Why couldn't she have been the victim instead of him? "No! No! No!" she wailed.

Their hunt must have brought them back to town for Sully was able to her cries. He got Katie out of the room first and then he had to drag her away, fighting at first. She knew he was upset as she, but he was thinking about her and Katie's safety. Brian would be hungry when he woke up and family ties would mean nothing in the face of it.

Sister Ruth held Katie in one arm and lay a cool hand on Michaela's sleeve. "I'm sorry. That was cruel even for a vampire. Why some of them choose children I'll never understand, but he'll be okay until he gets a drink of the holy water. It's not the same as being dead."

Her promises were bolder than they'd been before in sympathy, but they still didn't know if the holy water would even work. She'd failed Charlotte, his biological mother, but she'd failed herself most of all. What kind of mother was she not to keep them in her line of vision every moment of the night with vampires on the loose? One that she could not forgive.


	7. Chapter 7

They didn't go to bed that morning. Michaela and Sully couldn't have slept for thinking of Brian, and the Coles, though childless, understood that parental worry and helped them in the search.

Grace watched over Katie. She trusted her friend with her life, but it had been hard to leave her youngest child out of her sight after last night. She was still haunted by the memory of Brian lying on the floor with bite marks in his neck. It had been even worse when he had woken. He had beat at the door to get in to them for what had seemed like hours thought it had only been seconds. She had wanted to open it so badly, but Sister Ruth had read another psalm that sent him fleeing into the night.

Michaela gave a slight smile, all she could manage at the moment, at the sight of Sister Ruth, who wore a hat, gloves, a scarf. Items she'd been wearing the whole trip she'd noticed, but hadn't found the time to ask her about until now. "Are you cold?"

"Extremely. I'm a southerner, so my blood's thin anyway when it comes to the nippy weather, but I've been spoiled as we're usually in warm climates around this time of year like California. Colorado has the most bitterly cold winters."

"I suppose we do," Michaela agreed. She wasn't nearly as cold-natured as Sister Ruth since Boston was no stranger to cold weather, but she wished she'd thought to grab her shawl. Though she suspected her chill came from fear, fear she might never get Brian back more than fear of the vampires themselves.

Kid tucked his wife's arm into the crook of his, drawing her close to give her added body heat.

Sully, Kid, and Sister Ruth had hit all the caves in the area yesterday. Now they were going to explore the old mine shaft.

"Where is this old mine shaft?" Ruth asked.

"My bet is somewhere that direction," Kid said, pointing to the east. "That's where they all fly I've noticed. Assuming they are in the mine shaft."

"That's right," Sully said. "Of course, it's possible they found an old barn or an attic that could keep the light out just as well."

Sully pulled the nailed boards out when they reached their destination. Kid tried to help by pulling out one, but he was too weak these days.

It certainly didn't look disturbed as dust spilled down into the dark hole, but if they'd flown in, it wouldn't.

Sully went in first, followed by Kid and Sister Ruth, and Michaela brought up the rear.

They'd found a colony of bats sure enough. She could see their gleaming eyes and furry bodies before they'd walked very far into the entrance. Sully lifted the lantern he'd brought higher, casting the only light vampires or bats could tolerate. They clustered together, hanging upside down across the beam.

They were not the first group of bats they'd found; there'd been a number of the flying mammals in some of the caverns, but the number now matched up with those gone missing, and the way the bats all eyed them was unnatural, at least the ones who were awake. Bats mostly didn't pay humans any mind unless they were disturbed. These bats seemed sentient, and they were watching, waiting.

Kid found a broken piece of lumber, laying abandoned in the tunnel. He picked it up and poked the bats into action.

Act they did as they swirled down in a circle like a perfectly trained circus act and transformed right before their eyes, which was never a pretty picture. While done in a matter of seconds, it wasn't as instant as one might have imagined and the moment where a human was possessed of bat features was undeniably grotesque.

"In hindsight, maybe we should have just stuffed them into a bag while they were bats," Kid whispered to his wife. "You got your Bible or book of prayers, or whatever it is?"

Ruth made no comment as she frantically searched her pockets. She had stuck the little book of prayers in her pocket, Michaela had seen her do it, but it must have fallen out on the way to the mine shaft. "Lord have mercy," she said at last.

Indeed, He was their only hope, the only one standing in the predators' way, as they were totally and completely surrounded by every vampire that had been created in Colorado Springs, vampires who looked ravenous, and suddenly their plan seemed foolish and costly.

Michaela held the holy water that would change them back, the rope handle burning her palms as she nervously rubbed her hands against it trying to think of a way to make them drink the contents, but they weren't thirsty for water; they were thirsty for blood. Their blood.


	8. Chapter 8

Michaela saw that all their eyes were glowing red like she'd seen on Silas. Apparently vampire eyes only became red when they were ready to attack.

Sully threw his tomahawk, and it planted itself in Hank's leg. Hank pulled it out with his famous smirk. "Even if you threw it at my chest, your little ax couldn't hurt me."

Sister Ruth wasn't even looking at them anymore. Her eyes were closed and her lips moving in what must have been more prayer. Kid was eyeing the roof above them, trying to come up with an escape plan if she was a guessing person. Michaela knew she would have to sacrifice the water. They would run if she threw it at them, making a way of escape.

However, she had just pulled the cover off when there was a rumble. She looked at Kid. He had just pulled the support beam loose, and before anybody knew it, the earth above had come crashing down. The only thing that kept Sully, Kid, Ruth, and herself from being caught in the collapse was the presence of mind of the men in pulling them back towards the entrance. They had been able to go through the circle because of the stunned vampires.

When the dust settled and they were sure the tunnel was stable again, they went back to assess the situation. Every single vampire was neatly pinned under dirt and small rocks in what must have surely been a miracle.

"How'd you think of that?" Michaela asked Kid, impressed.

"It was Sister Ruth's idea actually. She was praying for the Lord to bring down this roof on them, and I decided I'd give Him a helping hand."

"Brilliant," she said, taking the water she was glad she hadn't used around to all the trapped victims. "Thank goodness it was just loose enough to work."

They hissed at her, and she had to have Sully hold their heads and Sister Ruth pinch their noses. They all fought the water like a child taking their medicine, but she got it down all of them, including Brian.

She was about to dig him out now that he had taken the cure, but Sister Ruth stopped her. "They need rest first. They were up all night, and it's not easy becoming normal again, I imagine. It's plain it's not an immediate change, and I'm sure it takes a lot out of them. We'll come back in the evening, and they'll be as good as new."

Sister Ruth spoke with a hope and certainty that was reassuring, but still Michaela hesitated. Leave them here under the rubble? But she saw more than one hissing at her, and there were no boulders that could cause anyone to lose arms or legs when they became mortal again. They could dig themselves out.

sss

Just as they were setting out to return to the mine shaft that evening, Michaela saw the happiest sight she'd seen in awhile. Brian, Reverend Johnson, Dorothy, Hank, Preston, and Silas and his wife were all walking into town.

She smiled. They looked healthy. Their cheeks were pink again instead of waxen. They smiled thinly. And no one looked ready to attack.

"Brian!" Michaela shouted, breaking into a run to embrace him.

"Ma," he said tearfully, returning the embrace.

She noticed then that the Reverend was holding onto Dorothy, his eyes unfocused. "You're blind again." She'd been hoping he would keep his newfound sight when he reverted back.

"My sight seems a small price to pay to be human again. Thanks be to God," he replied.

Other townspeople joined them out on the street, seeing that it was safe again to do so. It was the night of All Hallow's Eve. It seemed the town was having a Halloween celebration after all. It was certainly the most unusual one they'd ever had and that was saying something, but everyone could agree it was the most joyous one.

"I don't know how we can ever thank you," Michaela said to Sister Ruth, unable to let go of Brian.

"There's no need. I really didn't do all that much."

sss

The work in Colorado Springs done, Sister Ruth and Kid Cole boarded the train the next morning in the most luxurious car they'd ever rode in, courtesy of Preston.

They hadn't clattered far down the tracks when Kid said, "It just occurred to me we never did find out who bit that Silas fellow. You reckon we ought to go back?"

"The vampire that bit Silas ain't in Colorado Springs anymore," she said without the least bit of doubt. "Besides, I left them the box."

He wanted to ask her how she could be sure, but the train lurched going around a curve, sending Ruth's bag falling and the items in it spilling out. He got down on the floorboards to gather them up: a handkerchief, a few coins, and a little pot of rouge. He hadn't known his wife wore makeup, not that he cared. He stuck the bag back up above the seat.

Sister Ruth hadn't even seemed to notice the mishap. Instead, she was staring out the window almost forlornly. She hadn't smiled much lately, and when she did, they weren't very big smiles, but who could blame her? He was very near the point of death and then there had been all this vampire business.

He sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her, reaching for her hands. They were ice cold. He wrapped them in his to warm them. It was then he got an unsettled feeling as he too stared out the window. Something wasn't right about what he was looking at, but he couldn't quite put a finger on why. It was scenery he'd seen before.

She turned into him, her soft skin and sweet-smelling hair made him put it out of his mind. He closed his eyes to better enjoy the aforementioned sensations.

"Do you love me?" she asked quietly, her hot breath against his cheek, adding to his delight at her nearness.

"You know I do," he said, his voice more rumbly and low now. It was safe to say he was fully intoxicated as he slightly shifted his head, to allow her better access and her breath now tickled his neck.

"Do you love me enough to spend an eternity with me?" Not the strangest question in the world coming from Sister Ruth. She often asked a person if they knew where they were spending eternity, but this time the question had a seductive edge to it that gave him spine-tingling shivers.

"I'd spend two eternities with you," he said, meaning every word of it despite the fact that the statement defied logic.

Her hands moved up to nape of his neck, and she nipped the delicate skin there in a passionate way. It didn't even hurt until he felt his strength began to ebb.

It was then all the clues clicked. She wasn't covering up when she went outside because she was cold; she was covering up to avoid the sun, and she was using rouge to hide her paleness. She wasn't depressed; she wasn't smiling to hide her pointed teeth. No wonder she hadn't wanted to go inside the church. And he finally knew what had been bothering him while they'd been looking out the window. He had seen his image reflected in the glass, but he hadn't seen hers. She had become a vampire at some point in their marriage without his even knowing.

He wondered then if that was the explanation for his worsening consumption symptoms. Had she been taking little drinks while he slept to keep her strength up until she found a victim? Was a part of her sorry that she had to? After all, she had helped turn the others back. He supposed even the best vampire slayer couldn't change their own self back.

Or had the changing back been a ruse? Had she only shared her secrets with the coven on how to blend in during the day as ordinary citizens. Was anything in the kit even effective? It had all been a grand production right down to the psalm reciting. And if that was the case, Colorado Springs was still in terrible danger.

He heard her whispered words as he began to slip into unconsciousness. "I didn't want to turn you until I was sure you felt the same way. Sleep, my sweet, and when you wake, we'll find you your first taste. You'll enjoy it, I promise, warm from the body with a sweet, metallic taste. It'll soon be all you can think about."


	9. Chapter 9

It was dark, pitch black, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the faint moonlight. A cry escaped Kid's lips. He still had phantom pain from where her teeth had sunken into his neck.

His cry woke Sister Ruth, who had been sleeping beside him. He held a hand out to keep her from moving closer. "Please, we can find a cure. I don't want to drink blood."

"What are you talking about?" she murmured sleepily but alert enough to look at him like he was a madman.

He saw her Bible sitting where it always rested at night, beside the bed. It was her preferred bedtime reading and that seemed to bring him back to reality. He looked down at his own bedtime reading. _Camilla_ was splayed across his chest.

"You had a nightmare, didn't you? I told you not to read that fool story. It's too gothic to read before bed, and I ain't sure you ought to be reading it at all. Any story that celebrates darkness a body needs to be wary of reading."

She had told him not to read it. More than once. "The sentiments of an uptight culture. It wasn't so bad really. There were some Christian themes in it you would've probably enjoyed. I think a gothic novel can make you appreciate the way things really are all the more. Make you more grateful that we have a Savior."

"Yeah, well, I can do that without reading about some girl sucking the life out of another girl. Think about this. Would you have read it out loud to Jesus if He were standing in the room?"

Kid colored in shame, glad Ruth wouldn't see it in the dark. There probably would have been some parts he might have skipped over. "I see your point, and don't worry. Next time I'm going to pick lighter reading material."

She chuckled and kissed his cheek. "Maybe you should try some Mother Goose. A little girl getting scared by a spider might be about all the fright you can handle."

"Or this Mother Goose rhyme:

THERE was a lady all skin and bone;  
Sure such a lady was never known:  
It happen'd upon a certain day,  
This lady went to church to pray.

When she came to the church stile,  
There she did rest a little while;  
When she came to the churchyard,  
There the bells so loud she heard.

When she came to the church door,  
She stopt to rest a little more;  
When she came the church within,  
The parson pray'd 'gainst pride and sin.

On looking up, on looking down,  
She saw a dead man on the ground;  
And from his nose unto his chin,  
The worms crawl'd out, the worms crawl'd in.

Then she unto the parson said,  
Shall I be so when I am dead:  
O yes ! O yes, the parson said,  
You will be so when you are dead.

And that's where the person reciting the poem screams like they're being murdered."

"What in the world kind of Mother Goose rhyme is that?" she asked with her mouth a little wide at the the thought of children reciting such a macabre poem.

"It was a favorite among my brothers and sisters. We used to recite it often just for the joy of screaming. Momma let us do it without too much complaint cause she figured we were learning a good moral lesson to take stock of your life and get right with Jesus before you die."

"Well, maybe not Mother Goose then. But something else."

The End


End file.
